[MasterBrewer]

So I came across a situation that I have never seen before....

Here is the setup. Its our normal Thursday night game - NOT at my house. Generally we play 2 $25 buyin sit-n-go style tourneys a night with a cash game in between and after. Usually its just 1 table, but we had a larger than average turnout so we had 2 tables this night.

So we are about 30 minutes into the 2nd tourney, and one of the players gets a call from his wife. Her car broke down and she needs him to come pick her up and take her home. He turns to the host and says "I have a little more than the starting stack, just give me my buyin back and I'll call it even." I immediately perk up and our entire table is staring intently at the host to see what he says. He says, "just leave your stack, try to get back ASAP and we'll just blind you off. If you hurry you will still have plenty of a stack left when you get back. His response was, "I don't know how long I will be gone, I'll just take the $25 back and will try to return for the cash game." You could tell the host was feeling pressure from him, and felt like he was in a tough position.... so he finally relented and gave the guy his buyin back. After he left, the host asked me, "what would you have done in that situation?". I told him that its his house, and whatever he says goes... but there is no way I would have refunded that buyin.

Now, this guy is a regular player and an all around nice guy. The regular group is pretty constant, and we are all friendly with each other... but none of us really hang out together outside of our poker game. I can appreciate the fact that the host just gave back the refund basically to keep everything civil and keep any feelings from getting hurt... but didn't the player step waaaay out of line by even asking for the buyin back? Am I just being a hard-a**?

[jojobinks]

eh.

argument for the refund:

• it's never happened before
• there's no evidence that your other players will take advantage of the precedent
• it keeps the player happy / returning
• he had an average stack and it was early in the tournament
• he had a legitimate emergency

argument against:

• that's not how tournaments work

i'd be inclined to not refund, but that's b/c i'm a jerk. a good host (uw85, i'm thinking here) would give the guy his money back. circumstantial evidence (i don't have a home game, uw85's is healthy/thriving) indicates that uw85's judgement in these matters is better than mine.

[jamby]

The player was not only out of line asking for a refund, but pretty clueless as to just what a tourney is all about. The host was apparently pressured and made what I think is the incorrect decision as it adversely impacted the other players. It's his house though and thus his call barring any other rules or precedent.

[detroitdad]

I simply don't refund him. Its standard poker rules. If you have a house rule that says otherwise then cool. If not, chips stay on the table, sorry.

Its an emergency yes, but were not talking life and death.

IMHO its bad form to even ask for your money back.

This similar situation did happen early on, it was a good personal friend of mine (outside of the poker room), an emergency came up. He got up, apologized and left. We blinded him off (only a 7 player table, crazy loose, he finished 3rd, on the bubble, lol).

B

[MasterBrewer]

Yeah Jojo, I see what you are saying. The more "game-beneficial" decision is probably to give the refund. I guess I was more put-off by the guy asking for the refund in the first place.

If I was in that situation I don't think I'd ever ask for the refund.

Edit: At least now I know a new rule I need to add to my game's rule sheet

[hachkc]

Ugh.

In a casino or a serious tourney, SOL if you have to leave. Given its a friendly home game and he does have a very valid excuse, its very touchy. If it were a medical type emergency, I wouldn't feel too bad about giving him his money back especially after only 30mins of play. Given that its a lesser type emergency and he's planning on coming back, I honestly don't know. It was definitely rude of him to push the point after the host offered to blind him off plus his stack size is meaningless to the discussion.

Without knowing the group, you are easily a prick for not recognizing the fact that he does have an emergency to deal with after the tourney just started. By the same token, he's paid his money and shouldn't be able to pull it out just because something came up. I've used this trick to get out things by having someone call me or fake a call via my phone's alarm setting and make it sound important.

One option, have the group vote at that moment on what to do. If they vote no go, its not the host's issue. If they vote to let him have his money, no one can ***** at the host about it after the fact.

[hachkc]

Originally Posted by detroitdad

Its an emergency yes, but were not talking life and death.

If I tell my wife to call someone else because I'm busy playing cards, it now becomes a life and death situation.

[hachkc]

Just thought of this, one more advantage to cash games over tournies.

[detroitdad]

Originally Posted by hachkc

If I tell my wife to call someone else because I'm busy playing cards, it now becomes a life and death situation.

I understand that, and 100% agree, but if you bought into a tourney, whether its a friendly home game or not, you shouldn't ask for your money back for any reason (cheating aside) and if you ask for a refund you shouldn't expect to receive one. The tourney has started. Its that simple.

Where do you draw the line? If this is made a house rule, it better be very clear. I can see it causing a lot of problems.

Been playing for 45 minutes, card dead, folding every hand, heck I'm only short 5 bills, ooooops, an emergency has come up.

Not saying this would happen, but I think as a host your putting yourself in a real tough spot for future events.

B

[detroitdad]

At the next tourney, another guy, or two have what they perceive to be emergencies, but you don't. Who makes the call on what is an emergency and what isn't?

B